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Rocky Mountain Bee Plant is a striking annual flower that Lewis and Clark documented during their historic expedition, making it one of the West's most charismatic native wildflowers. This spider flower produces spidery clusters of blooms in shades of pink and purple, growing 12 to 60 inches tall depending on conditions, and reaches maturity in just 75 to 85 days. Hardy across zones 2 through 11, it thrives in full sun and will readily reseed itself if seeds fall on bare ground, creating a self-sustaining display year after year. With roughly 3,300 seeds per ounce, a little goes a long way in pollinator gardens or native plantings.
Full Sun
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2-11
60in H x ?in W
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High
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Few flowers come with the storied pedigree of Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. Lewis and Clark witnessed its delicate, spidery pink and purple blooms across the landscape, and gardeners today can grow the very same flower they documented. It's a tenacious annual that often reaches five feet tall, drawing bees and other pollinators with magnetism, yet it asks little in return beyond full sun and the chance to drop its seeds on bare soil. Once established, it essentially tends itself.
Rocky Mountain Bee Plant is grown almost exclusively as an ornamental flower in pollinator gardens and native plant landscapes. Its spidery blooms in pink and purple serve as a major nectar source for bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, making it invaluable for gardeners committed to supporting native pollinators. It also holds significance in botanical circles as a living example of plants documented by Lewis and Clark, adding historical and educational value to native plant collections.
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Sow Rocky Mountain Bee Plant seeds directly into garden soil after the last frost date in your region. Scatter seeds on bare ground or lightly rake them into the top of the soil surface, as they benefit from light exposure to germinate. In zones 2 to 11, timing varies widely; gardeners in colder zones should wait until soil warms in late spring, while those in warmer zones can sow earlier.
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“Rocky Mountain Bee Plant belongs to one of gardening's most compelling narratives: the plants that caught the eye of Lewis and Clark during their 1804 to 1806 expedition across the American West. When these explorers recorded Cleome serrulata in their journals, they were documenting a wildflower that had sustained the region for centuries. Its presence in seed catalogs today represents a direct lineage from those early observations, a living connection to early 19th-century botanical discovery. The plant's ability to self-seed with ease meant it required no formal preservation efforts; gardeners simply needed to let it grow and drop its seeds naturally, ensuring it remained in cultivation across generations.”